Like this:

// As a mountain biker I get this. I really do. Epic scenery. Adrenalin pumping through your veins. Mates hollering down the trail. It’s the kind of video that makes me want to go grab some buddies, my bike and drag the sorry lot of us out onto the hills. I love Southampton; I really do. But it doesn’t quite compare to the hills of North Carolina…

It did make me think though.

The brief picture painted of “church” I get, despite the word painting lots of different pictures in people’s minds (and sadly, but understandably, not all good). A band-of-brothers united by the same mission I understand. But community isn’t simply the same as friendship. Community, not some fake people-in-the-same-room-together thing, but true community is of the laying-down-our-lives-for-each-other flavour.

I realise the video wasn’t intended as a theological treatise, but, whatever way you view it, one big thing is missing from the picture of church painted. Or rather, one big person.

Jesus.

‘Church’ without Jesus? Well, it’s just not really church. In fact, ‘church’ without Jesus is simply religion.

Like this:

// Mosaic have wanted to have a weekend away together for a while now and a couple of weekends ago we finally managed to do so by camping together in the beautiful Hampshire countryside. And yes, the weather was on our side!

As part of our time together we headed into the woods on Sunday morning to engage in a “Creation Liturgy” I had pulled together, which I thought I would post here in case it’s of help to anyone. I can’t claim any originality as I drew from a couple of fantastic Proost resources heavily. Maybe the only claim I can make is to the “original” way I drew the bits together! Children and adults alike seemed to respond to it though.

Like this:

Just read Brad Watson’s helpful post tackling the question of “Why does our missional church gather on Sunday“. Unlike Brad I’ve come to the question from a different place as I am a child of the ‘gathered’ church. I don’t have any distilled learning to share yet from our experience of the last 4 years with Mosaic and Exilio but may share some someday…

Characteristics

The Orr-Ewings highlight 7 key characteristics on p47 of the ‘Millennial persona’, as they put it, taken from Strauss and Howe’s, Millennials Rising:

Special – previous generations have impressed upon them the belief that they are vital to the nation

Sheltered – they are the recipients of some of the most radical youth safety policies

Confident – they believe that good news for themselves is good news for the country

Team-orientated – living life with others is paramount

Achieving – they are the best educated and behaved adults in the nation’s history

Pressured – they feel the need to excel

Conventional – they believe that social rules help

The authors also quote a report from the Evangelical Alliance Council Meeting on September 16, 2009 on ‘The 18 – 30 Mission: A Missing Generation’

In research carried out by Innovista it was found that 96% of church leaders think that increasing the number of 16 to 30 year olds in the church is either more important or as important as any other top priority. Yet despite this, only 11% of the same church leaders felt ‘well resourced’ to do this in terms of people, training, and tools. p48

Work

They are looking for a job that will give them everything. p49

The “magic” for Gen Yers comes in making a difference – producing something worthwhile – whilst working with a great team and getting the rewards they feel they deserve. p49

Teaching on giving will need to be strong and clear as will the link between caring about social justice and doing something about it personally as the gap between rich and poor increases. p52

Consumerism and brands

Due to the amount of adverts, the focus of the millennial consumer has become lifestyle image rather than functional need. p56

[Millennials are] used to not having to exert much effort. p57

To become part of the inner circle a brand needs to be trusted, agile, transparent, and engaging. p59

Morality

The vast majority are intuitionists – that is, they believe that they know what is right and wrong by attending to the subjective feelings or intuitions that they sense within themselves when they find themselves in various situations or facing ethical questions… The majority of emerging adults interviewed had difficulty thinking of even one example of a situation recently when they had some trouble deciding what was the morally right or wrong thing to do. p64

Conclusion

If we succeed in reaching this generation for Christ they have the potential to rival the Victorians in the impact they make in the world in rebuilding the community and the family, tackling poverty and seeing massive social transformation in the face of poverty and inequality. Could they usher in another great Evangelical century? p70